The global financial machine has ground perilously close to a halt. This timely film explores what went wrong with economic globalization. How could the financial world have miscalculated so badly?
We chart financial liberalization in East Asia, privatization in Latin America, the reckless transition to capitalism in Russia, and China’s more cautious evolution to a market [...]

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Poor nations derailed the last WTO deal. Now economic turmoil means the rich countries could kill it off for the foreseeable future
With America reeling from the worst financial crisis for half a century, poor consumers struggling to afford food, and China’s appetite for raw materials forcing up the cost of oil, now may not seem [...]

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China and Taiwan agreed on Thursday to set up their first ever offices in each others’ territories, as they began historic talks aimed at consolidating a dramatic rapprochement and building trade ties.
Both sides said the restart of the dialogue, which China suspended a decade ago as relations between the long-time rivals plummeted, would be able [...]

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Beijing and Washington are geopolitical rivals and Beijing has used the gains from trade and investment to strengthen its capabilities. It has been foolish to allow China to amass its dollar hoard through an inattentive trade policy. It would be even more irresponsible to allow Beijing to use its money any way it pleases to [...]

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My fellow economists are manning the barricades to defend free trade from a growing public backlash. But with globalization increasingly seen as a threat, our arguments are falling on deaf ears. Maybe it’s time to stop claiming we know what is best for everyone?
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The Moral Challenge of Globalization - Robert Samuelson, Newsweek

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To commentators such as Thomas Friedman, today’s globalization is a largely technological phenomenon. Once learned, new technologies are typically not forgotten, which is why globalization can seem an irresistible force, destined to bind us ever more tightly together for the foreseeable future. History, however, suggests that globalization is as much a political as a technological [...]

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Declining wages and the unchecked outsourcing of jobs are cause for concern in the United States. The doctrine of free trade, the core of US economic policy, is faltering. Has the age of protectionism begun? By Gabor Steingart in Washington, D.C. more…

SPIEGEL 360: Gabor Steingart’s West Wing
War for Wealth: The Global Grab for Power and [...]

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China’s economic development strategy has often been called a new version of mercantilism, the philosophy of political economy that built the great nation-states and empires of Europe in the 16th-19th centuries. Mercantilist features have been most prominent in Beijing’s drive for exports and a large reserve of hard currency. The focus has usually [...]

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But now the administration is facing questions from weapons experts about whether some equipment - newly authorized for export to Chinese companies deemed trustworthy by Washington - could instead end up helping China modernize its military. Equally worrisome, the weapons experts say, is the possibility that China could share the technology with Iran or Syria.
The [...]

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Rapid expansion in China and India has led the governments of these countries to make sweeping changes in the way they buy oil. In many cases, they are beginning to circumvent the traditional distribution networks of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), and other bourses, entirely.
In fact, they’re undermining them, “locking up” supplies by purchasing [...]

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Mercantilism was established during the early modern period (starting in the 16th to the 18th century, which roughly corresponded to the emergence of the nation-state). This led to some of the first instances of significant government intervention and control over market economies, and it was during this period that much of the modern capitalist system [...]

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Here’s today quiz. What do the following have in common: (a) Vladimir Putin; (b) China’s currency, the renminbi; (c) the U.S.-Peru trade agreement; and (d) Hugo Ch¿vez? Answer: They all reflect the “new mercantilism.” It’s an ominous development affecting the world economy. Even as countries become more economically interdependent, they’re also growing more nationalistic. They’re [...]

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China, which is feeling the sharp bite of product recalls from US vendors, is striking back at the merchant princes of America in the manner they warned the US State and Treasury Departments they might in October. They are once again threatening to dump the dollar. As they signaled their intent to follow through on [...]

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Mercosur, the “Common Market of the South,” is the largest trading bloc in South America. Mercosur’s primary interest has been eliminating obstacles to internal trade, like high tariffs, income inequalities, or conflicting technical requirements for bringing products to market. Yet Venezuela’s recent addition to the group has experts wondering if Mercosur will reorient itself as [...]

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Huawei, founded by a Chinese military officer in 1988, got its start building military communications networks. “Huawei is up to its eyeballs with the Chinese military,” a Pentagon official told Bill Gertz of The Washington Times. A second Pentagon official said the deal is taking place at a time when the Pentagon has mounted an [...]

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While Islamist terrorism is a constant reality in our lives, it is not the only danger to the United States’ security in the world today. China is developing a massive military and economic capability that may one day challenge American security worldwide.
Yet the American government appears unwilling to confront the reality of an ascendant [...]

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For nearly three decades, Chinese peasants have left their villages for crowded dormitories and sweaty assembly lines, churning out goods for world markets. Now, China is turning the tables.
Here in the Australian Outback, Shane Padley toils in the scorching heat, 2,000 miles from his home, to build an extension to a liquefied natural gas plant [...]

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The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.
Two officials at leading Communist Party bodies have given interviews in recent days warning - for the first time - [...]

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Is it possible to go for a whole year without buying any products made in China? One woman in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, wanted to find out. FP spoke with author Sara Bongiorni about her new book, the hidden role China plays in our everyday lives, and what it’s like to be a mother of two [...]

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is imposing new export controls on high-tech goods ranging from aircraft to space communication systems that could be used by China’s rapidly expanding military, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday.
The new regulation, which takes effect on Tuesday, also creates a “trusted customer” program that will allow approved companies [...]

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BRUSSELS: Toughening his stance, the chief European trade negotiator said Monday that the burgeoning European Union trade deficit with China was intolerable and warned that he could take retaliatory measures if Beijing failed to restrain low-cost exports.
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